Ocean of Love
by s3ctor.of.dr3ams
Summary: Set in Denmark. Belle is struggling with her royal duties as Princess, and finding away to avoid marriage with a man she doesn't love. Ariel entranced by the human world, wants to escape her life under the sea. When the two of them meet they may just be the answer to each others problems.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A loud blast rang out through the deserted underwater cavern. Followed by a strenuous sequence of swear words, verbalized by a middle aged man residing in the murky waters. Like most men his age, he was well built with strapping muscles that stretched up and down his shirtless figure. But, where most men featured two seperate legs, a single broad blue tale stretched down from his waist line, extending well past the length of any ordinary human limbs. Normally an occurrence like this, would be rather strange and thought only to exist in supernatural versions of the universe. But, in this case it was quite normal. For this man was a merman, and not just any merman, he was King, of all ocean life that inhabited the deep blue waters, under the sea.

The King continued to meddle with the elements presented before him. Now, desperately mixing random solutions together, praying for a result other than the previous combustion he had just unintentionally constituted.

To his dismay, another deafening detonation trembled through the cavern, creating a series of rippling waves in its wake. But this time, instead of cursing in frustration, the King lifted his mighty fist above his head, before violently striking whatever had caused him such repulsion.

Fragments of various material instantaneously dispersed from his clenched fist only to tediously sink to the bottom of the cavern before resting completely still all together.

The King let out a heavy sigh. Then slowly, he relaxed his fist before reluctantly glancing behind him to a second mermaid who inhabited the small cavern. Only, _she_ laid unconscious, propped upward on the opposite end of the cave.

From a single glance, one could tell she was extremely sick. For her face was several shades paler than normal, large black bags framed her soft eyelids from lack of sleep, and the skin on her body was shriveled down revealing the outline of her frail skeleton. Still, aside from all this disfigurement the King could not help but admire the woman's stunning beauty.

He sighed. With nothing left to do he silently approached her unresponsive body. Softly encasing her fragile hands in his own, he whispered three quiet words,

"Goodbye, my love."

As soon as the words vacated his tender lips he paused a long moment, hopefully, waiting for a response. But when he was met with silence, he lowered his head in misery.

Furious, ashamed, but above all, heartbroken that he was unable to brew a concoction powerful enough to save his beautiful wife and mother of his seven young daughters.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 _15 years later_

"Cheers!"

A cacophony of mens screams echoed off the deck of the massive wooden ship. The sound of splashing liquor filled the air as canisters of beer were quickly emptied, and stein after stein was filled to the rim with the glorious alcoholic beverage.

It was a time of celebration, and an occasion was to be celebrated indeed.

"Long live the Princess" a young man shouted raising his mug over the chaos, that was now accumulating throughout the deck of the ship. A series of hoots and hollers came screeching back to him in response. The man smirked in satisfaction before conducting his gaze to the very girl he had been directing his toast too, Belle.

Though technically she qualified as a princess since birth, the young woman had recently been promoted to a much higher standard in the public's eye. Because as of today, she had finally reached the age of adulthood.

Now for a boy, in her situation, just reaching manhood would have signified complete domination and authority. Not to mention the fact that generally, he would have been presented with the most magnificent treasures from all across the world.

Unfortunately for Belle, the only gift she was receiving in light of the celebratory gathering, was the unwanted attention of many lustful men.

But Belle didn't mind, she was simply thrilled that the festivity was held away from the castle she had been cooped up in all her life. And the privilege of riding aboard her brothers Pirate ship, was all the more sensational. Speaking off who, the young man himself was just now approaching her through the seething mass of humanity aboard the ship.

"Hey sis", he yelled, before clumsily swinging an arm around her shoulders. "Enjoy my toast" he grinned lifting his beer in unison, which due to his tipsy state, spilled all over the ships lacquered floor. _Clearly someone has had too much to drink._ Belle thought to herself.

"Well it certainly was something" Belle replied, grinning back at him. "Though I _would_ expect a little more coming from the future ruler of our kingdom, Eric".

Eric chuckled, removing his arm from Belle's shoulder to sweep away a rogue curl of black hair that had fallen into his face. "What can I say" he began, in a mock british accent, "the novelty of presenting myself with such formality wore of quite quickly. You'll see for yourself in time," he continued to tease, "not even the greatest Kings and queens that have graced the surface of this planet, have had the decency to stay professional at all times." He finished with a theatrical bow. Belle raised a brow, smiling knowingly at his antics.

"Now enough of this serious talk I need another drink", he smirked, raising a hand to ruffle her dark brown locks before hobbling back into the life of the party.

Belle giggled silently to herself. _Goodness, life would be so dull without him_ she thought.

Because the truth was, Eric was the person that she was all time closest with. He was the one that protected her, and taught her everything she needed to know growing up. They did everything together. She could recall back to several times when he would try to play pranks on the castle servants leading them both to get a scolding by their father, but what could anyone do about it. It was safe to say that life as a royal was not the most fitting for energetic children who were just entering their teenage years. Unfortunately though, from that point on the pair of siblings had only created a rather poor relationship with their father who did NOT care much for their wild behavior. Calling his children _a disgrace to the royal family but above all his reputation,_ and threatening to disown them, come a time when their _foolishness went too far._

But no matter how atrocious their relationship with their father became and how hopelessly boring the castle life seemed to remain, the two of them stuck to together.

Though pranks, and "immature behavior", were no longer tolerated by the King, Belle still couldn't think of a single time when Eric had failed to bring a smile too her face.

She watched his baggy white shirt disappear into the crowd before turning the opposite direction and gracefully slipping to the edge of the ship. Though the sound of music and cheers and overall fun was raging on behind her, she couldn't help but feel content, standing here, alone by herself. This was one of the first exposures she had experienced to the outside world. This was one of the first time she didn't have to be concerned about her father, or any of her royal obligations.

She sighed, glancing out across the dark rippling waters that were vaguely illuminated by the full moon above. How she wished she could explore those waters leaving behind all of her now increased duties to her kingdom. To be able to travel the world carefree, and experience all the wonderful places she had read about in her books.

Belle sighed once more, before gently resting her arms over the railing of the ship, and longingly staring out into the darkness of the night. She was interrupted though, when two broad arms came from behind, wrapping tightly around her midsection. She gasped in surprise, and quickly turned to find a tall handsome man dressed in a sailor outfit similar to Eric's. His long honey colored hair was loose, resulting in thick tangled heaps of golden dreads to fall messily around his muscular shoulders. The ocean weather certainly did no justice to this man's usual aristocratic appearance, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Adam", Belle breathed.

Adam was the eldest son of the nearby Kingdom of Sweden, best known for their high profits in timber. Belle was betrothed to him long before she even understood what marriage was, in her fathers best attempts to create a strong relation with the extremely wealthy neighboring kingdom.

"Now what is my beautiful girl doing, standing out here all alone", the man smiled gesturing to the empty portion of the boat Belle had been taking refugee upon.

"I just needed a moment to myself", Belle replied shyly, mentally replaying all the unwanted stares, comments, and rather inappropriate touches she had received from men aboard the ship all throughout the night.

"Well as long as it's not me, you're trying to get away from", Adam smiled, before drawing her in for a deep kiss, that Belle personally thought was far too intimate for such a public setting, but nonetheless, went along with anyway. After a long moment he pulled away, looking satisfied. Though his cheerful expression disappeared from his face in an instant when he noticed her discomfort.

"What's the matter", he asked nervously.

"It's not you", Belle assured him.

He seemed to visibly relax at this remark, but the look of concern did not leave his face.

"Then what is it", he prodded sincerely.

Belle paused, then in an instant she found herself spilling out all of her deepest speculations. "I - I -I just don't know if I'm fit to hold such a powerful position, and influence over the functioning of this society. Adam, I spend all my time reading fictional books, I haven't the slightest idea how to manage a kingdom", She revealed anxiously. "What if I'm no good, what if I make a wrong decision I mean it's been hard enough for Eric just _learning_ how to run the kingdom all the while seeking the justifying approval from our father. Oh, if only our Mother was still alive." Belle exclaimed burying her head in her hands, before letting out a few muffled sobs.

Belle's mother had passed away several years ago. It had been an utterly devastating time for the kingdom, the royal family, and especially Belle. Where her father was the living representation of discipline and obedience, her mother was the warmth and nurturing. She was the center of the family holding Belle and Eric together with their Father like glue. She was the light of the family. But she got sick, very sick. And it wasn't an instantaneous type of sickness that developed in her body immediately. No this took months to compile within the lovely queen. The signs were slow in the beginning, vomiting, body aches, that were even mistaken for symptoms of pregnancy at first. It wasn't until the queen began having seizures that the doctor concluded something was definitely wrong. Looking back on it now Belle assumed her fathers sternness was mainly acquired through the stress of losing his wife. But that was still no excuse for his harsh behavior, that only seemed to grow worse after the passing of her beloved mother.

Adam just stood awkwardly for a long moment at this revelation, having no idea how to respond to Belle's current dilemma.

"Well, um, uh….. At least this gives you an excuse to read more about monarchies?", Adam finally offered, though in the end it came out as more of a question.

"... yeah I guess" Belle replied, wiping the wetness from her eyes, oddly unfazed by his pathetic response. If anyone knew the couple on personal terms they would understand that deep, emotional conversations like these were extremely uncommon between the too. At this point Belle didn't mind Adam's lack of understanding, at least he showed that he cared. Though sometimes she did wonder what it would be like to court someone who wasn't such an awkward mess and could handle at least one heartfelt conversation. It would certainly make her _already_ isolating lifestyle, much less lonely. But she knew she had a duty to uphold for her Kingdom, and quite frankly she didn't want to endure the wrath of her father, by backing out of the inevitable marriage to come.

Adam rubbed the back of his neck anxiously, he knew that he just never really had a way with words. "Um…" he started, desperately trying to break the awkward silence that had befallen the two " I guess if you ever need me I'm here for you."

Belle looked up at him in gratitude. And stiffly nodded her head. That seemed to be enough for him, because in a matter of seconds his sheepish demeanor disappeared, and was immediately replaced by his classic cheerful persona. "So I was thinking…" he started, easily brushing aside the previous conversation the couple had just shared.

Meanwhile, Belle, for her part, mustered up the best fake smile she could manage and absently nodded her head as he continued to converse about his typical, pointless subjects.

Though, _both_ were oblivious to the young red headed girl who had been intensely watching them from beneath the shadows of the boat. Her youthful bright blue eyes gave them one last long glance before ducking into the never ending waters below. Leaving only a small heap of fizzing bubbles in her wake.


End file.
